1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connecting member, a process cartridge and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
Here, the term "electrophotographic image forming apparatus" relates to an apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium by using an electrophotographic image forming system. For example, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (e.g., a laser beam printer, a LED printer, etc.), a facsimile telegraph, a word processor, etc.
The process cartridge integrally combines charging means, developing means or cleaning means, and an electrophotographic photosensitive member into a cartridge that is detachably mountable to a main body of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The process cartridge also integrally combines the electrophotographic photosensitive member and at least one of the charging means, the developing means and the cleaning means into a cartridge that is detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. Further, the process cartridge integrally combines at least the developing means and the electrophotographic photosensitive member into a cartridge which is detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
The electrophotographic image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic image forming process conventionally adopts a process cartridge system in which the electrophotographic photosensitive member and process means acting on this electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally made into a cartridge which is detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. In accordance with this process cartridge system, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus can be personally maintained by a user instead of a service man so that operability can be greatly improved. Therefore, this process cartridge system is widely used in the image forming apparatus.
Such a process cartridge has a cleaning container (first frame) for holding a photosensitive drum as the electrophotographic photosensitive member, and a developing container (second frame) for holding the developing means for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum by toner (developer). The above cleaning container and the above developing container are rotatably connected to each other by a connecting member having a round bar shape.
In recent years, a used process cartridge is collected, disassembled and cleaned and is then reutilized (recycled). In a disassembly process of the used process cartridge, the connecting member connecting the developing container and the cleaning container is first detached. In this case, the connecting member is pulled out of an outside side surface of the cleaning container. However, it is necessary to pull out the connecting member without damaging the cleaning container so as to reutilize the cleaning container.
The disassembly process will next be explained with reference to FIGS. 14, 15A, 15B and 16.
When the process cartridge 100 is disassembled into the developing container 102 and the cleaning container 103 to reutilize (recycle) this process cartridge, it is necessary to first detach connecting pins 108a, 108b (no connecting pin 108a is illustrated) connecting the developing container 102 and the cleaning container 103. However, as shown in FIG. 14, the connecting pins 108a, 108b are connected to connecting holes 106a, 106b, 107a, 107b, 107c, 107d (no connecting holes 106a, 107a, 107c are illustrated) such that no end face 108d of a connecting portion 108c is projected from outer walls 103a, 103b (no outer wall 103a is illustrated) of the cleaning container 103. Therefore, it is difficult to detach the connecting pins 108a, 108b without damaging the cleaning container 103.
Therefore, it has been considered to connect the developing container 102 and the cleaning container 103 in the process cartridge 100 by using a connecting pin 200 as shown in FIG. 15A so as to improve the disassembly property of the process cartridge. FIG. 15A is a front view of the connecting pin 200 in which the disassembly property of the process cartridge is improved. FIG. 15B is a cross-sectional view of the connecting portion of the developing container 102 and the cleaning container 103 using the connecting pin 200 shown in FIG. 15A.
The connecting pin 200 has a connecting portion 200a, a head portion 200b and a grip portion 200c. The connecting portion 200a is fitted into each of connecting holes 106b, 107b, 107d (106a, 107a, 107c) of the developing container 102 and the cleaning container 103, and rotatably connects the cleaning container 103 and the developing container 102 to each other. The head portion 200b has a diameter larger than that of the connecting portion 200a and comes in contact with the outer wall 103b (103a) of the cleaning container 103. The grip portion 200c has a diameter larger than that of the head portion 200b and is formed to easily detach the connecting pin 200. When the process cartridge 100 is disassembled, the grip portion 200c of the connecting pin 200 is gripped by a tool such as pliers, etc., and the connecting pin 200 is pulled out of the cleaning container 103. Thus, the process cartridge 100 can be easily disassembled into the developing container 102 and the cleaning container 103.
However, it has become desirable to narrow the clearance between a longitudinal outside face of the process cartridge and an inside face of the image forming apparatus main body at a mounting time of the process cartridge onto the image forming apparatus main body, i.e., the clearance t (see FIG. 16) between a frame 150 of the image forming apparatus main body A1 and the outer wall 103b of the cleaning container 103 as much as possible so as to make compact the image forming apparatus main body A1 and the process cartridge 100. Therefore, it is necessary to arrange a connecting pin for easily disassembling the process cartridge 100 without projecting an end face (the head portion 200b and the grip portion 200c) from the outer wall 103b of the cleaning container 103 as in the above connecting pin 200.
The present invention is obtained by further developing the above discussed conventional art.